Prayer of St. Francis (2)
Dec 13, 2015
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
“Peace begins with a smile”
Mother Teresa
The entire prayer of St. Francis is a prayer of bringing peace to the world, by being an instrument of peace in all that we do in the world. Peace will occur one person at a time; leaders can sit all they want and make promises by the dozens; but it only takes one or two individuals far removed from any position of authority to destroy all the leaders proclaim. We will see that each of the attributes that we pray about brings us closer to that person who embodies peace in our world.
Peace only exists when the force of peace becomes the norm for any group. And that norm of peace only comes about when you and I decide to be that person of peace in our own world that we personally live.
Becoming a person of peace requires changing our ever-present mode of defense, a person of peace accepts all for who they really are: a child of God, made in the Image and Likeness of God as proclaimed in Genesis 1.
We are all made in the Image and Likeness of God. This proclamation includes every person on our earth, including the two individuals who killed 14 the other day. This proclamation includes those who work tirelessly feeding the hungry and working with those suffering; but it also includes those in ISIS who kill and maim others, just as it includes those in the day of St. Francis who in the crusades killed those Muslims who would not convert to Christianity, and the Muslims they were killing.
All on earth are the Image of God. All. There are no exceptions. Only by accepting this in our innermost part of our being can we be the source of peace to our world. God does not judge, for God Loves all that is, as God is only Love, and Love does not judge. How would God judge Itself? For if God is the All in All, God IS the all, including all that exists in the universe. Yes, this sounds strange, but quantum physics has proven that all is one, and Jesus tried to tell us this over and over, but the power of this thought has proved too much to bear, as how could God do this or that and still be God?
I have talked about this in the past, and so will not review that again; except to say that only be seeing what we are not can we see what we are.
It comes down to this: who do you decide that you are? Are you the person of Peace that reflects the Goodness of our God, or are you the person of not peace who reflects what God is Not? And there is no in-between, for as said in Revelation 3:16: “So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot or cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
We each have a choice to make in our life, and this is the purpose of life: Are we Hot or are we Cold?
We will wind our way through this prayer over the following meditations, and find a path to be that person of God, of Love, of Life.
“You may say I am a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us.
And the world will live as one.”
John Lennon
Questions to Ponder
Can we see ourselves as a person of Peace?
Can we visualize our being as one that will love all, including those many consider an enemy and are being demonized today, such as the Muslim community?
Can we be as Jesus in our ailing world?
Meditation
“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.”
If this meditation has been helpful, I would appreciate it if you would pass it on or share it.
Powerful words Dave, well done. I just had a discussion along the lines of what you have written here recently. Humanity includes all people, include people that get labeled as “them”. We are all trying to live on the same planet and there is indeed friction and seems that there has been friction through the ages. But treating extremists with extreme measures will certainly result in more converts to extreme beliefs. Eventually some dialog will have to open. As painful as it may seem, not communicating with the people that are labeled extremists will result in more death on both sides. Someone will have to ask the question, why do the extremists believe what they do, what created this? Ask them and see what they say. Find out what can be done, non violently to overcome this. What can be agreed on and what not. Start somewhere.
And, importantly, what did one side do that may contributed to the problem for the other. We are all on the same planet and actions that a removed in place and time, still cause riipples. A situation that occurred many years ago may be slowly feeding into a belief system that young people believe and rally around to fight for their cause today, however misguided it may be.
Peace will happen when people start to understand each other, then they realize that they are more the same than not. Enemies will realize why the other side feels the way that they do. And like you say, it will happen one person at a time, one conversation at a time that opens up the dialog.
I saw an interesting TED talk, can’t remember the title, a few months ago. The premise was that people would make signs and post pictures on social media of themselves holding the signs. It was along the lines of a sign held by an Israeli that said “I ‘heart’ Palestine”. Soon there were Palestinians that joined in, “I ‘heart’ Israel and so on. It was powerful, it humanized the situation between the two sides, it opened up a dialog.
Thanks Eric. I have seen much along the same line. Neale Donald Walsch had an interview recently where he asked all to pledge not to do violence in the name of God. He is looking into trying to gather an international group together to listen to why the anger seems so powerful right not. Should be interesting if he can pull it off.